Government Performance

Feb 8, 2016

Top 400 Taxpayers See Tax Rates Rise, But There’s More to the Story

As Americans were gathering party supplies to greet the New Year, the Internal Revenue Service released their annual report of cumulative tax data reported on the 400 tax r...

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Feb 4, 2016

Chlorine Bleach Plants Needlessly Endanger 63 Million Americans

Chlorine bleach plants across the U.S. put millions of Americans in danger of a chlorine gas release, a substance so toxic it has been used as a chemical weapon. Greenpeace’s new repo...

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Jan 25, 2016

U.S. Industrial Facilities Reported Fewer Toxic Releases in 2014

The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data for 2014 is now available. The good news: total toxic releases by reporting facilities decreased by nearly six percent from 2013 levels. Howe...

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Jan 22, 2016

Methane Causes Climate Change. Here's How the President Plans to Cut Emissions by 40-45 Percent.

UPDATE (Jan. 22, 2016): Today, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released its proposed rule to reduce methane emissions...

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FDA to Keep More Watchful Eye on Foreign Food Producers

Jan 21, 2010 by Matthew Madia

FDA food safety officials want to increase the agency’s overseas inspection presence 20-fold, Congress Daily (subscription) reports today: “The Obama administration intends to increase the number of inspections of foreign food plants from 100 per year to 2,000 per year, a key FDA official said Wednesday.”

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Just Saying 'No' to Tax Cheats

Jan 20, 2010 by Craig Jennings

This is freaking sweet: President Obama issued a memorandum on Wednesday designed to ensure that companies that are seriously delinquent on their taxes are not awarded federal contracts.

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New DOD Contracting Rule Aims at Flawed Business Systems

Jan 19, 2010 by Gary Therkildsen*

A proposed rule published in the most recent edition of the Federal Register takes aim at Department of Defense (DOD) contractors with deficient business systems. The rule, which seeks to reduce "the risk of unallowable and unreasonable costs on Government contracts," would allow contracting officers to withhold a percentage of payments from contractors with deficiencies in specific business systems.

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Blackwater/Xe, the Company You Can't Get Rid of

Dec 22, 2009 by Gary Therkildsen*

Yesterday, Justin Elliot at Talking Points Memo published an interesting piece on the never-ending saga that is the government's relationship with the company formerly known as Blackwater. Despite the scandals, investigations and indictments that have recently plagued Xe – and the resultant loss of a license to operate in Iraq and the cancellation of several security contracts overseas – the company continues to perform work for the State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Pentagon in Afghanistan and Iraq.

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Fiscal Policy in 2009 – A Review

Federal fiscal policy has been front and center throughout 2009 as the Obama administration and Congress have gone to extraordinary lengths to bring the country's economy back from the brink of disaster. It seems like every week, we saw a crucial vote or major policy proposal released. A massive Wall Street bailout, an economic stimulus effort with unprecedented transparency provisions, an attempted reform of the financial regulatory system, a new presidential effort to reform the contracting system, significant gains in proper enforcement of the tax code, and a Congress that continued to fail at passing appropriations and tax bills in a timely manner have made for a pretty exciting, if not chaotic, year. Below is a review of some of the major developments in federal fiscal policy in 2009 from an OMB Watch perspective.

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Bernanke Endorsed by Senate Banking Committee, Supports Limited Fed Audit

Dec 18, 2009 by Sam Rosen-Amy

Yesterday, in a bipartisan vote, the Senate Banking Committee approved Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's nomination to a second term as Federal Reserve chairman. The vote wasn't in any doubt, although the closeness of the margin, 16 to 7, does indicate the contentiousness of Bernanke's nomination. The nomination now heads to the Senate floor, where, barring some crazy unforeseen calamity, he will be nominated to another four year term in January.

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Final Defense Bill Includes Franken Anti-Rape Amendment

Dec 16, 2009 by Gary Therkildsen*

Back in October, I wrote about Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) and his praise-worthy amendment to the FY 2010 Defense appropriations bill that would bar the government from contracting with companies who prevent their employees from bringing workplace sexual assault cases to court. The amendment passed easily 68 to 30 – with the thirty senators who voted against the measure receiving a good amount of backlash – but shortly after the vote there were rumors that conferees would strip the amendment from the final bill during reconciliation with the House. Not to fear, though, because according to Sam Stein over at the Huffington Post, the Franken amendment survived, and the final language is "remarkably strong."

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Task Force on Government Performance to Hold Hearing Today

Dec 10, 2009 by Gary Therkildsen*

The Senate Budget Committee’s recently inaugurated Task Force on Government Performance will hold a hearing this morning on the benefits of the use of technology in providing results in government performance. This will be the second hearing for the task force and it should be a good one.

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OMB Watch Launches Recovery Act Data Tab on FedSpending.org

WASHINGTON, Dec. 3, 2009—Today, OMB Watch released a beta version of a new database on FedSpending.org that gives the public improved access to and searchability of Recovery Act recipient report data. The database allows users to search more than 160,000 reports from recipients of almost $159 billion in Recovery Act contracts, grants, and loans awarded between Feb. 17 and Sept. 30.

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House Committee to Hold Hearing on Army Contracting Scandal

Nov 30, 2009 by Gary Therkildsen*

Back in August, I wrote a post on a WaPo article about George Raymond, a former Army official with the Communications-Electronic Command (CECOM), and allegations that Raymond steered government contracts to his friends and then broke ethics rules by taking a comfortable job in the contracting industry afterwards. The Post is now reporting that the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee – which has been investigating the matter since the story broke – recently requested all documents, emails, and material related to the $200 million worth of CECOM technology contracts that Raymond allegedly steered to friends.

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